A Thinking Fever
by 1eleven1
Summary: Hiro seems to be sick with the flu, but Tadashi knows it's something more. (Lots of fluff, care-taking, comfort, love, etc.)


_**WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS (some) MOVIE SPOILERS!**_

_Hello, and welcome to my first story (hopefully not the last, but it depends on how much free time I have)! This is my contribution to the BH6… I don't necessarily want to say fandom, but I suppose that's what is it. I wrote this because, as obvious as it may seem, I loved the movie. Even though Tadashi is a fictional character, you can't help but compare his and Hiro's loving relationship to the ones you have with your friends and family. It makes you feel so sentimental and wanting to always be near them should something happen to them, or to yourself. Writing it/reading it is sort of closure, hmm? But sadness aside, I had a lot of fun writing their relationship, and I tried to keep it as in character as possible between a ten-year-old Hiro and his sixteen-year-old brother Tadashi._

_The funny thing about this, at the time that I'm writing this, I also have a fever that has come from overexerting myself at work. Thankfully I work my second job in a bakery, so I got sent home early with a brownie and I'm already starting to feel better! _ _ (Though I also hope my fever hasn't caused me to leave unfortunate typos behind…)_

_I have rated this story K+ because it seems better suited for a teen-and-up audience. However, there is no profanity, nudity, sexual themes, etc. Major fluff, care-taking, compassion and the like. The ending is bittersweet, but again, I think it gives the story a little closure (I hope the ending is clear enough, but most people who write fanfiction are good at making connections and such)._

_Please enjoy! Feel free to leave comments if you find it necessary. And have a wonderful day!_

"101.3. Our kid's got a fever," Tadashi said, taking the thermometer out from under Hiro's tongue. Hiro rubbed his eyes, trying to sit up in bed, but Tadashi pressed a hand against his chest.

"I feel fine, and I'm not just saying it," Hiro insisted, but his voice cracked hoarsely. When he tried to get up again, his older brother gently pushed him back down against the pillows he was propped up on and pulled up the sheets a bit higher. Hiro puffed out his bottom lip, but he had to admit, he was feeling a little too dizzy to fight back.

Aunt Cass shook her head, giving Hiro a half smile. "Sorry, kid. I know you genuinely love school. But I'm gonna have to force you to take a sick day. I'd be a bad aunt if I let you go."

"Well, you'd be a good aunt to me. A really good one," Hiro pouted. "We're supposed to dissect a cow's eye today in class…"

"A cow's _eye_?!" Aunt Cass stuck out her tongue. "That's pretty gnarly, Hiro. You like that kind of stuff?"

"Yesss…" Hiro smiled softly; he liked surprising his aunt with all of the crazy things he was completely comfortable with.

"Your first dissection at ten years old. I can't believe it."

"It's not the first!" Hiro said eagerly, sitting up again, and Tadashi tried not to smile at how adorable he was acting. "I dissected the frog three years ago. I was the one who cut open the stomach and found partially digested crickets inside. And our group was the fastest and most precise because of me! …And the cow eye is way cooler Aunt Cass please let me go!"

Cass smiled at him again, but she shook her head, shrugging her shoulders – Hiro deflated. "I can't, Hiro, look at you – you're chilled to the bone!"

"I-I'm not!" Hiro grabbed his arms, rubbing at them to stop himself from shivering. "I'm just _normal_ cold, and if I throw on a sweater, I'll be _fine_ –"

Hiro froze as Tadashi pressed a warm hand against his forehead. It felt so refreshing against his ice-cold skin. Hiro noticed himself leaning into his touch sleepily… then shook himself away.

"Stop it, bro, I'm fiiiine," he whined, pushing his arm off, but Tadashi only moved in closer, reaching forward and running his fingers over his brother's scalp. Hiro wanted to move away again, but at the same time, it did feel nice, and it was helping relieve his headache…

"Aunt Cass, I know you have that large order of breakfast pastries to take care of today," Tadashi said, rubbing his thumb over Hiro's temple soothingly; Hiro's shoulders slumped. "And that wedding cake, too. You're too busy to watch Hiro. I'll stay with him and make sure he's well."

"Not you, too!" Cass and Hiro said in unison, then glanced at each other briefly before turning back to Tadashi. He couldn't help but laugh at them. They were quite different in appearance, since Hiro was Japanese and Cass wasn't Asian at all, but sometimes it was quite clear how they were related. "Are you sure you want to miss school?" Cass asked, folding her arms. "I know you love going as much as Hiro does. You haven't missed a day yet all year. "

"I care more about Hiro than school," Tadashi said, and Hiro felt his face flush. School was very important to both of them, so he knew that must mean an awful lot. "I want to stay with him. Is it all right?"

Aunt Cass bit her lip. She was such a sucker for their brotherly love. Most times they acted hyper and crazy like normal siblings, or otherwise serious and calculating like the pair of geniuses they were. But then there were occasions like this one, where they needed each other, and they treated each other so softly and tenderly and with such kindness. They were such good kids; how could she ever say no to them? Not to mention, she trusted that if they missed a day of class, they'd have no problem catching themselves up again.

"… Sure, I'll call in sick for both of you," she said, after a moment of watching Tadashi hypnotically stroke Hiro's hair and pull it behind his ears, causing his brother to go into a little trance. "I do have a lot of work to do, but that doesn't mean you can't come get me if you need anything, okay?"

"Thank you, Aunt Cass." Tadashi smiled, ruffling Hiro's mop of hair. Somehow it was always messy no matter what you did, but it suited his little brother's hyperactive, mad-genius personality. It was rare to see him so still like this, but Tadashi was an expert on calming him down like nobody else.

"Thanks…" Hiro echoed sleepily, rubbing at his eyes and suppressing a yawn. Cass nodded at the two boys before leaving the room, running down to the kitchen to quickly prepare a lunch for the two of them for later in the day.

"All right, little bro," Tadashi said a minute later, lifting up the sheets and moving himself under the bed beside his sick brother. "Time for cuddling."

"Wh-What?!" Hiro exclaimed, his eyes large. "Hey, I don't need them, I'm not a kid-!"

"But you're frozen cold from you fever. I'll warm you up, so come here."

"You could catch my cold if you get near me-!"

"No, I won't, and you know it. Come on, now."

Hiro gave him a look, trying to seem indifferent. He honestly didn't mind his brother wanting to hold him close, maybe he wanted it a little, too – but he was ten now, he shouldn't like to be held and hugged by his brother anymore, like a toddler…

"Fine. But you owe me. Something cool," Hiro insisted, looking away.

"All right. You can help me with my homework catch-up later."

A smile lit up Hiro's face. "Does that mean I get to do it for you?"

"No, we talked about this! That's cheating."

"Half of it?"

Tadashi snickered. "I'll just make a copy of my homework for you and then we can compare answers."

"Deal."

Tadashi rolled his eyes mockingly. "You are certainly not like normal brothers. No one else wants more homework. But I like you better than anything normal." Tadashi scooped Hiro up, wrapping him in his warmest blanket. He moved himself over to the head of the bed, crossing his legs and leaning into Hiro's pillows. Hiro's small body fit snuggly in Tadashi's lap. Tadashi had been a small child as well, though not quite as scrawny as Hiro, and so Hiro wondered if he'd always be tiny or if one day he would grow to be strong, too. Tadashi cradled his brother against him, allowing Hiro's head to fall against his chest. Hiro flushed; he felt awkward and silly, being held like a baby, but then his brother began to massage him on the back of his neck and across his hairline, and Hiro soon forgot to be ashamed.

Tadashi wanted to care for his brother while he was sick because he wanted him to get well, but also because he knew why Hiro had fallen ill in the first place. This wasn't a normal cold; this was a thinking fever. Every once in a while, Hiro got sick from overworking himself, for staying up too late thinking about things far too intelligent for normal people to consider, even beyond Tadashi himself at times. But Tadashi knew Hiro thought about other things, more troubling things, and that Hiro worried. He worried about his parent's death, about people dying and leaving him. Sometimes, Tadashi would wake up in the night to find Hiro shaking silently, crying in his sleep, and Tadashi would go over and pet his head and whisper "it's all right, I'm here" in his ear until Hiro's shivering ceased. Hiro never talked about his feelings openly, and so many times they would get bottled up inside him until they just had to come out. That, or he would just work himself into a thinking fever, like now. Tadashi used to get them sometimes, too, when he was younger and didn't understand why bad things happened. He thought today, maybe it would take love more than medicine to get Hiro healthy again.

"Hiro," he said softly, while tracing a finger around the little boy's ear. Hiro felt the heat rise in his cheeks, sensing the mood in Tadashi's tone. With his head lying against Tadashi's chest, he could feel the words in his throat, his warm breath on his ears, his heart beating rhythmically and slow. "Have you been doing a lot of thinking lately?"

"You ask me that sometimes," Hiro sniffed, rubbing his nose. "I dunno. I guess. I'm always thinkin' though."

"What are you thinking about?" Tadashi asked, brushing Hiro's bangs out of his face with long fingers.

Hiro shrugged, pulling his legs up into his chest. "I dunno. School… mostly school."

"Anything else?"

"Mmmm…" Hiro made a grumbling noise in his throat. "I don't like making you worry. I'm not sick from thinking to much."

"I'm not worried. I'm just making sure you're okay," Tadashi said, pressing his forehead against Hiro's; Hiro shut his eyes. "It feels like you're still burning up."

"The hypothalamus is raising my body to a higher temperature to break the fever," Hiro said merely, like it was common 10-year-old knowledge.

"Where'd you learn that? You smartie," Tadashi teased, gently pushing his finger into Hiro's cheek.

"That's not smart, I didn't have to solve anything to know that."

"It is smart. You're a really intelligent kid. And you work hard, too; you earn it."

"Yeah, I guess, but… I'm not the smartest or the most hard working," Hiro said quietly, turning away slightly. "There's lots of things I don't know and that I'm really bad at…"

Ah, now he was getting somewhere. "And why do you have to be the best?" Tadashi asked. He began rubbing his hand over Hiro's small shoulders, trying to warm up his body even more. It made him sad to know that Hiro was hurting over something like this, but he also understood that everything wasn't always going to be right in Hiro's world. He'd just have to do his best to help him through it and get his brother back to his usual plucky self.

Hiro shifted in Tadashi's lap. "Because if I'm not the best… I dunno. I guess I'm not anything."

"Ah, Hiro…" It wasn't the first time Tadashi had heard Hiro talk like this, unfortunately; he should've known. Hiro was a perfectionist. When he didn't understand something right away, he would usually slump over, put his head on the table, and deem himself a "failure". Of course, ten minutes later, he'd always suddenly get it and be back to his normal self again. However, the self-deprecating mindset never went away completely, and it was clear lately it had really been eating at him.

"I didn't tell you to make you sad," Hiro went on. "It's just… what I worry about sometimes. Cause if I'm not good at being smart I dunno what else I can do. Nobody will think I'm good at anything so I'll just be worthless. And I really don't want to be that – Ah-!"

"Hiroooo, you're never worthless and you never will be!" Tadashi exclaimed, pulling Hiro tightly into a hug. "I honestly don't know how you can think that about yourself. When you're not off being smart somewhere you're working with Robotics Club at school or helping Aunt Cass with the bakery or researching possible cures for cancer or doing something else that's just crazy and amazing for anyone to do – and you're only ten years old."

"… Bro… You're squishing my face off…"

"I am not 'squishing your face off'. I'm only squishing out your dignity."

"G-Great, even better…" Hiro coughed for emphasis, and Tadashi finally let up. Hiro moved away, but only slightly. "Geez. Was that supposed'a make me feel better?"

"Of course. I did it because I love you."

Hiro felt himself turning red again; he bent his face lower so Tadashi couldn't see. Of course he loved him, too, but saying it didn't always come so easy. Instead, he just responded with, "You're weird."

"Maybe so, but I'm also right," Tadashi said, swiping Hiro's bangs out of his face again, but stopped once he realized Hiro was trying to hide that he was blushing. "Has something been happening lately that's making you feel so down on yourself? Is someone at school giving you a hard time?"

Hiro sat quietly for a moment, thinking. "No, nobody's doing anything to me," Hiro said with a sigh, folding his arms over his chest. "It's just that I haven't done anything new lately. I'm in a rut. And it feels like I've been in one forever. I can only think of the same things over and over… Even when I do my homework, suddenly nothing feels original anymore. I feel like the teachers are starting to turn to other people instead of me. What if… what if everybody else goes forward and I'm always the same? And then I get… left behind. And forgotten."

The truth finally came out. Hiro felt nervous saying it and talking about his feelings so candidly, but somehow now he also felt… relieved. He sighed deeply, the weight finally off his chest. He looked up at Tadashi, and flinched slightly as their eyes met.

"Oh, Hiro," Tadashi said, giving his brother a soft smile. "Everybody in the world goes through rough patches where they feel like they can't move forward. I get those a lot, too."

"Really?" Hiro said, furrowing his brow. "And they always end?"

"Of course. As long as you keep trying, eventually you'll make a break through. Sometimes you just need to take your mind off of things for a little bit, put your hard work down and take a break. Sometimes you just need to take a sick day, and then once you've rested, you'll go back to it and do even better than before."

Hiro grimaced. He wanted to believe him, but right now, things were feeling hopeless. "I dunno."

"I'm not giving up on you," Tadashi said, "and you shouldn't give up on yourself, either. When you're passionate about something, you'll always find your way back to it. But you should also know, there's always going to someone better than you and there will always be someone worse. It doesn't mean you don't matter – you matter so much."

Again, Hiro wanted to believe him. He shrugged, exhaling heavily out his nose. "But what if I really am the worst?"

"You have straight A's and all of your grades are over 100 percent!" Tadashi said, jabbing Hiro playfully in the ribs.

"St-Stahap!" Hiro giggled, squirming slightly and pushing Tadashi's hands away. "I… I guess it's that way right now, but what if I get worse? What if I stop being smart? What if suddenly, I'm like, average? Or below average?"

"So what if you are?" Tadashi said. "All I want is for you to be happy. No matter what happens, you'll always be the best to me."

Now his words were starting to reach him. Hiro's face stretched into a half-grin, showing off the holes in his mouth where his baby teeth had been falling out and his adult teeth were starting to poke their way through. "Even if I suck, I'm still the best?"

"That's right. If you're happy, I'm happy. And I'll always be proud of you."

Hiro rolled his head back to look up at him. He was starting to act silly now, getting back to his normal goofy self. "What if I purposefully flunk a test? You'll still be proud?" he chuckled.

"I would be SO proud! You've never flunked a test in your life! We would put that right up on the fridge – I can hear Aunt Cass now: 'Congratulations, Hiro, your first F!'"

Hiro was really laughing now. "I don't think I could fail even if I tried."

"I don't think you could, either. Especially if you were in fourth grade instead of almost in high school. You know, most kids your age are just learning to do long division."

Hiro wrinkled his nose. "Really? I could do that in preschool."

"I know. Just think of all the things you'll be doing once you're my age. Going to the moon, probably."

"There's no reason for me to go to the moon. I'll build a robot that can go and do things more efficiently than I can. And why just the moon, bro, that's so close-minded – why even stay within the galaxy?"

"See? Look at you go. I wish you wouldn't think you aren't worth something, Hiro. I don't think I've ever seen you not accomplish something you put your mind to."

"…Y-Yeah, I suppose so," Hiro said bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck. He was starting to feel better, much better. "Um, thanks, 'Dashi…"

"Hey, that's what brothers are for. We pick you up when you're down. Sometimes literally," Tadashi joked, pulling Hiro slightly closer.

"Mmf… I didn't really need to be held," Hiro said quietly, but it hadn't been so bad, really…

"I know you didn't need it. But I wanted to."

Hiro curled up, leaning in closer to him. "You still want to?" he asked quietly.

Tadashi put his palm over Hiro's forehead and put the other up to his own. "Hmm. Wow, it seems like your fever has dropped immensely. You almost feel back to normal," his older brother said, removing his hand. "All right, I suppose I can let you go. You don't need me to warm you up anymore."

But Hiro didn't move. "N… No," he mumbled into his brother's shirt. "You can stay… I guess. If you want to, or something."

"Oh?" Tadashi beamed, tracing his knuckle down his brother's cheek. It was something he used to do when his brother was a baby and he would get fussy to calm him down, and it still seemed to work. "All right, I'll stay with you. Since I want to, that is."

"… O-Okay…"

Hiro nuzzled his head against Tadashi's torso, turning his face in towards him and shutting his eyes. Again Tadashi placed his hand on the base of Hiro's scalp, twining his fingers between strands of his hair and braiding them together loosely. He kneaded the skin on Hiro's neck and shoulders and the small of his back, then tenderly rubbed his thumb and forefinger on Hiro's earlobes. At this point he knew all of the spots that Hiro hated being touched, the spots that irritated or tickled him, and also the places that made him melt into relaxation. It didn't take much massaging before Hiro's breathing slowed, and eventually he became warm and limp with sleep.

After Hiro had gone to bed, Tadashi sat there for a little longer, still holding Hiro all wrapped up, the same way he'd held him the very first time after he was born. Tadashi smiled sadly. Why did he always get so sentimental towards his brother? At times he wondered if Hiro needed him more or if he needed Hiro. Even if Tadashi were suddenly no longer around, like his parents, Hiro would still go on to do great things as he always had, he was so independent and self-sufficient… but who would take care of him in times like this? Who else would know that sometimes when Hiro got sick, it wasn't about his physical state but about his state of mind? A doctor couldn't fix this; it took hugs and care and kind words to make his brother better. There were some things even geniuses needed help with, and Tadashi never wanted Hiro to feel alone…

That's when Tadashi suddenly formed a brilliant idea. He was smart, he had the skill and knowledge to build things, and the caring mindset of someone who valued personal attention and love. Yes, truly everyone deserved to be appreciated and listened to, but not everyone had someone in their life who could give that to them. But he could change that. He could make that dream a reality.

Tadashi leaned down and brushed Hiro's hair away from his face. His brother still dozed silently in his lap, and Tadashi softly cupped his hands around his small ear.

"It's all right," he whispered. "I'm always here for you." _Even when I can't be anymore._


End file.
